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Tommy Maxwell

A Coach to Coaches

In 1971 cornerback Tommy Maxwell (Th.M., 1983) helped lead the Baltimore Colts to defeat the Dallas Cowboys in the last seconds of Super Bowl V. A part of the National Football League (NFL) for six years, Tommy has played for the Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers as well as the Colts.

“I’ve been very fortunate to play for some great football teams,” he says. “In my work with Coaches Outreach, my Super Bowl ring gets me through a lot of coaches’ doors. I also had some great coaches who taught me about life—Joel Sturdivant in high school, Gene Stallings at Texas A&M, Don Shula at Baltimore, John Madden at the Raiders, and Bum Phillips at the Houston Oilers.”

At Dallas Seminary he was coached to love the Bible. “I came away knowing that God’s Word will give us victorious lives when understood and obeyed,” he says. “I thank God often for DTS and for the passion it gave me for every ‘jot and tittle.’”

After graduating with a Th.M. in Old Testament Studies, Tommy taught a Bible study for coaches in Austin, Texas. “We had our first marriage conference for coaching couples in 1990. Over the years the conferences met such a need that Coaches Outreach became a full-time ministry in 1997,” he says. In addition to its summer marriage retreats, Coaches Outreach now writes its own Bible studies designed for coaches. “We have around 1,900 coaches meeting together in 200-plus schools weekly discussing our material. We are simply trying to stay up with what God has been doing since that first conference in 1990.”

From his Super Bowl victory to ownership of an insurance business to his days at Dallas Seminary, Tommy says that he can see that God has used it all to bring him to the place he is today.

“I would say to any prospective student that if you believe that God wants you in full-time ministry, then DTS is the place. The most exciting part of ministry to me is to be able to teach and inspire other Christians toward their own ministry,” he says. “God loves to see that too. To start a chain of solid reproduction, God needs called-out men and women who love Him and are willing to be trained in His truth. DTS will thoroughly train you.”

While Tommy is retired from the NFL, he is no stranger to sports. He likes to hit the links, calling golf “a very spiritual hobby—there is no better way to learn humility than golf!” He also enjoys playing with his grandkids and “hanging out with my wonderful wife, Janice, at our new home on Lake Granbury,” he says.